Eagle Link to H5N1 Fatality in Jakarta?
Recombinomics Commentary
April 4, 2007
Muhammad Nadirin of the health ministry's bird-flu center told Reuters that two tests on the 23-year-old housemaid from south Jakarta, who died on April 1, confirmed she had bird flu.
"Her master keeps an eagle at home, she took care of the bird," Nadirin said.
He said authorities had yet to determine whether the eagle had the virus, although a number of fowl in the area had suddenly died.
The above comments refer to another fatal case in Indonesia. The number of new confirmations in Indonesia continues at a high rate. Sequences from recent cases have not been available, but cases from the beginning of 2007 had the characteristic cleavage site of human case in Indonesia, RESRRKKR. This sequence was not found in bird isolates in 2005, and detection of such sequences in birds significantly lagged detection in humans.
This match failure may have been related to independent collections of human and bird samples. As noted above, the pet eagle has not been tested. Moreover, matches between birds and patients in Indonesia have been rare. These match failures may also be linked to limited testing of wild birds and cats, which may be major H5N1 reservoirs in Indonesia.
Media reports have indicated that cats have tested positive for H5N1 sequences or antibodies, and testing of wild birds has been started, but sequences have not been forthcoming.
More sequences from human, cat, and wild bird isolates would be useful.
Media sources
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